Finally admitted defeat

Having successfully photographed weddings etc since 1969 both on film and digital I dont really see myself as a snapshooter with too much money.

I did not consider that possibility until your next statement, and agree it is probably out of line. However, your statements seem out of line also. Thus explaining the attitude of the response.

However I do think that a D700 should be capable of rendering a grooms suit as black rather than very dark blue straight from the box.

BLACK refers to so many differing colors making the white balance critical and difficult to nail. REMEMBER The Film you just mentioned??? Every single frame needed correction [I assume you did not shoot slides for weddings]. Yet, you insist digital should get every shot correct. To the contrary I feel any it gets correct is a rare bonus. Thus JPEG, RAW or TIFF ALL need adjustments period.

I have tried all of the Nikon picture controls and tried all combinations of contrast, saturation and hue. i have tried fine tuning the white Balance. As for the dodgy autofocus and noise on the Canons I havent seen evidence yet for that and as most of my photography is portraiture I dont see much problem with the focus. I am photographing a family wedding on Thursday and I will keep you all posted.

Although it is not intended to be this may seem condescending till you realize my reasons for posting it; however, I have worked with several others who had problems with colors especially facial colors over the years on line. Several of them did not know they had color blindness or in most of the cases actually were not color blind but somewhat partly color deficient [meaning they actually saw the colors but not with the intensity of people who saw all of the colors more completely]. Those with major problems seemed to know that from the start. Depending on who you speak with 10 to 20% of males have some form of color deficiency minor to major and only a few percent of females have any problems with colors [i.e. have them check their work]. Therein is my first suggestion if you find some difficulties with the tests listed or if you take others. The next step would be get to an eye doctor or one who specializes on color deficiencies. However, the female assistant is still probably going to be the part of the final solution.

After checking this out the next step will vary depending on the results.

If I am wrong and you are just amazingly precise I suggest you show others your final prints and see if they have the same problems with your photos.
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Ray
RJNedimyer